


The Universe Will Not Let Me Sleep

by argentConflagration



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, terezi angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/908060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argentConflagration/pseuds/argentConflagration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Terezi hasn't slept well in a while.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Universe Will Not Let Me Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> This is an experiment with a little less plain of a writing style. The title is from [Fever Dreamless](http://tindeck.com/listen/bwtm), by Case.

You haven’t slept well in a while. 

You’ve been lying awake on this human bed for hours, not entirely sure your kismesis won’t emerge from the recesses of the meteor once you’ve let your guard down. Once, your game of cat and mouse was exhilarating. Now it wears you down and breaks you apart bit by bit. 

There’s no rush to succumb to sleep—no reason not to let the day slip into the night as your weariness overwhelms you. In this infinite abyss, days and nights melt against each other in a temporal haze. It messes with your head. 

Another breath in, and you think you catch a whiff of cinnamon, or maybe wine, but in another breath it’s gone. You can admit to yourself that your heart was hoping for Dave, or even Karkat, but they’ve got no reason to seek you out anymore. You burned those bridges a long time ago. 

As you turn over again and bring your bare knees to your chest, you sigh another long breath. There’s definitely someone there. You feel dulled by nerves and shitty soda, but you guess that someone’s just on the other side of the door. Someone who’s been standing there for a while without making a sound. 

"Who is it?" you whisper. 

They start.

"It’s me; it’s Karkat," he stammers. “I didn’t know you were still up."

"What were you doing at my respiteblock door, then?"

"I just couldn’t sleep," he answers, entering. “Gamzee isn’t here, right?"

"I don’t spend every moment with him like you seem to think."

You sit up, leaving a space beside you on the bed. Uncertainty flashes on his face before he sits down next to you. He doesn’t say anything. 

For a long minute you sit together but alone, the only sound the echo of your empty breaths in the small block. Then, moving as if he could shatter you with a touch, he puts his arm around you. 

And you do break. You throw your arms around his neck and slump into his sweater. You can’t force tears from your eyes, but tears are what you mean.  _I’m sorry I’m like this_  is what you mean. 

"Terezi," he begins, as if he has something to say, but he trails off. He clears your hair from your cheek and lays his hand against it. 

And then, very softly, he runs his fingers down your face, and again, a little faster. Muttering “shhh" under his breath, he strokes your face and your hair and your eyelids and your mouth while you cling to him, frozen. “Shoosh," he says again, and you slowly let out the breath you hadn’t realized you were holding. You lean into him, seeking the comfort of his touch. You’ve never had a moirail before. You never imagined you’d be the one to need it. 

"Thanks," you whisper. You pull yourself into his lap, letting his touch and his voice leave you loose and warm against him. You’re weak, so utterly weak that he seems to be the only thing holding you together. But right now, you think that might be okay. 


End file.
